According to the annual, peer-reviewed State of the Climate report, it was also a year of other extremes and records, including the highest sea levels and lowest sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctica. And, it was one of the worst years for droughts.

The 299-report, published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, relies on the work of hundreds of scientists in 60 countries. It shows that 2016 was "very extreme and it is a cause for concern," says NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden, a co-editor of the report.

Blunden says that a strong El Nino in the first part of 2016 was a contributing factor, helping push up global temperatures, but that is by no means the sole cause.

NPR's Christopher Joyce reports for our Newscast unit, "The report notes that these changes are consistent with projections of human-caused climate change."

Last year also witnessed new records for the greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.

"The annual increases in methane and nitrous oxide were pretty much in line with their decadal trends, but the rise in global carbon dioxide of 3.5 [parts per million] was the largest year-over-year increase observed in the 58-year measurement record," Blunden said.

"This brought the global average carbon dioxide concentration for 2016 to 402.9 ppm," surpassing 400 ppm for the first time in modern records or ice core records that go back nearly 800,000 years, she said.

Some other highlights of the report, as collated by The Associated Press:

"- At any given time, nearly one-eighth of the world's land mass was in severe drought. That's far higher than normal and "one of the worst years for drought," said report co-author Robert Dunn of the United Kingdom Met Office.

"- Extreme weather was everywhere. Giant downpours were up. Heat waves struck all over the globe, including a nasty one in India. Extreme weather contributed to a gigantic wildfire in Canada.

"- Global sea level rose another quarter of an inch (3.4 millimeters) for the sixth straight year of record high sea levels.

"- There were 93 tropical cyclones across the globe, 13 percent more than normal. That included Hurricane Matthew that killed about 1,000 people in Haiti.

"- The world's glaciers shrank — for the 37th year in a row — by an average of about 3 feet (1 meter).

Related Content

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz signed an executive order Friday that calls on the county to continue its effort to reduce its carbon footprint. His order follows President Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

The former EPA regional administrator under President Barack Obama said scientists who leaked the report about further evidence of climate change to The New York Timesshould be commended as “whistleblowers.”

Mayors from the Great Lakes region said Thursday that they will continue to fight against climate change -- despite President Trump's withdrawal from an international agreement.

"While the president of the United States has bowed out of the Paris Agreement, we are stepping up as cities to lead the charge against climate change," Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Mayor Paul Dyster said in a statement. He is the new chair of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

Governor Cuomo says he’ll sign an executive order committing the state to meet the Paris accord standards, calling President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement “reckless” and “irresponsible."​